Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1887-01-27
BIG JIM WAS THERE

Inc one narrow street of the from
tier town was filed with a surginl
crowd of excited men. There were
Indian fighters. scouts gamblers
tramps, miners, speeulators-every
thing and everybody,
Hes bullyi"
"He's q cowardn'
Hes got TO hang"
"Thst's his third man"
Every town has its bully-every
frontier town. Big Jim was the bully
of Hill City, and The story of his las,
adventure stamps him as man whom
some would call heroic. He could
drink more, curse louder, shoot quicker
and start row sooner than any other
man. When he shot Timber Joe /,
WAS stand of. II was rough agains,
rough. Whoever went under the
town would be the gamer. The death
OF his second victim brought him 9
certain respect, for he had given the
man fair show.
There::was no limit to the number OF
men one.might kill in Hill City. 1t
was three times and out. Big jim
had killed his third.
Two hundred men, all excited, some
half-crazed, all indignant, some terri
bly, aroused, surged down the street TO
tue Red Star saloon, bent on vengeance
Big jim and the man he had killed
were alone in the place.
Bring him outs'
He's got TO hang"
Bring out the bully and coward!'
There was q rush, but it was check
ed. Men mad pistols and knives in
their hands, but the sight of Big Jim,
with big navy" in each hand, cool
ed their ardor. A life for lite is no
revenge.
They lied when they called him a
bully. Bullies strike and run, or blus-
ter and dare not strike.
They lied when they called him a
coward. towards do not remain to
face death.
Big Jim advanced a little. The
CT lwd fell back. He stood in the door
and surveyed the mob AS another man
might have looked up at the pine-cov-
cred crest of Carriers Peak. The mob
grew quiet. There were two hundred
right hands clutching deadly weapons,
but not a hand moved. Two hundred
to one is appalling odds, but the one
was master. Seeming TO face every
one Of thcm-seeming to cover every
breast with the black muZzles of his
reyolvers-the man backed away
up the road into the darkness, out of
their sight and hearing. He said not
d word There wasn't whisper from
the crowd until he had disappeared.
The men drew long brcaths of reliei.
A terrible menace had passed away.
Out into the darkness-down the
rough road-over the bridge, and there
Big Jim put up his revolvers, turned
his face square to the west, and
stepped out without look back to the
camp. 1t was ten miles TO flarney's
Bend. Men driven from the one
camp took refuge in the other. The
halfway landmark was bit OF valley
skirted by creek. Waytarers who
were journeying by team many times
halted there. On this night there was
a lone wagon. Under the canvas
cover slept a mother and four children.
Resting against wheel was the hus.
band and father, his eyes piercing into
the pitchy darkness. his ears drinking
in every sound, 4
Big Jim had not reached the valley
yet when the still night air was rent
with warhoops, the crack OF rifles, the
screams of woman and her children. .
Indians had discovered the lone and
- l..fn g.,
were six scalps to ajorn their lodges.
The tully and the coward had not
been discovered. He could find Il
safe hiding place. Did her /
A balt-dozen screaming, yelling
tiends were dancing about the wagon,
striking, lodging, closing in
on the one white man, who somehow
escaped their blows and bullets, when
there was cheer and rush and the
navys began to crack. Sixty seconds
later dead silence had fallen upon the
valley.
One. two. three dead Indians. The
leaned against the wagon
f.int with a wound in the head The
wife looked out with an awful terror
It her heart. Bullets had Clipped and
,plintered wheel and body.
"Who are your asked the immi.
grant, as a figure approached him from
he darkness.
big Jim
You have saved us from a massa-
re"
Yes, and there is no further dan
o." /
When the blaze caught the fresh
agots and lighted up the little valley
he immigrant counted the dead Indi- Il
ms again-one, two, three. He
urned with extended hand, but Big
i'm had departed. II
Next day, when men from Hills ,
nd l1arney's found his dead body be- ,
ide the rocks mile away, with five j
Wounds which had let his life blood /
ut, they whispered TO each other.-
1--WE thought we knowed him, but
We didn't"